In October 2010, multiple-time Inc. 500|5000 honoree Dan Stewart began a side venture based on a clear need for effective e-mail marketing campaigns. The project was originally inspired by an earlier venture, a customer relationship management (CRM) company Dan founded in 2007. One of his customers, a marketing-focused teacher to real estate agents and brokers, advised his students to stop sending e-mails that were “boring” in nature. He instead recommended that e-mail messages be “fun, relationship-building, [and] conversation starting,” giving Dan his evidence that creative message content was a challenge facing the market at large.

Happy Grasshopper is made up of a team of writers who create timely, interesting message content that is sure to evoke a response, making it easier to maintain contact with a network. The easy-to-use solution offers five services to sales professionals: keep-in-touch, canned content, sponsored tools, CRM marketing tools with integrated drip services, and DIY e-mail marketing tools. Dan’s writing team simply loads a new message into a customer’s account every three weeks. The customer edits and approves the message prior to sending.

The Florida-based company became Dan’s main focus after selling his CRM customers to his lead developer in 2010. Their advantages lie in ease of use, reach, pricing and content. Happy Grasshopper fully alleviates the discomfort of composing e-mail messages for just $19 per month. Scaled plan sizes are available for increasing network size, up to $39 per month for 5,000 contacts. And full reports on message deliverability and open rates are provided to the customer in real time.

Happy Grasshopper was formally incorporated in March of 2011. Their open rate was 198.2% higher than leading competitor Constant Contact, also within the real estate market segment, in the first quarter of 2011.

In 2012, Dan built a quarter million dollars in SaaS revenue and expects to reach $1 million in 2013.

Update: In 2013, Happy Grasshopper has reached the $1 million milestone, and is forecasting $3 million in 2014.